TikTok has announced a potentially powerful new tool which will let content marketers see what users are looking for in the app, and use that information to make videos on exactly what they want to see.

TikTok

“With these insights, creators can source inspiration for their content, tailor their creative strategies to meet audience interests, and create content that people want to see more of. Our hope is that Creator Search Insights empowers creators to make content that’s relevant to searchers and positioned to perform well on TikTok.”

A way to help creators increase engagement

TikTok says it has developed this tool to help support creators connect with their audiences through Search, which is good news for organic discovery and engagement.

Businesses can use them to create content that people in their field are looking for, which should help boost visibility and reach on the app. The topics could be simple, such as ‘bagels new york”, which could help a small baker expand the reach of their content quickly and easily.

Over at LinkedIn, there are a few marketers who are pretty excited about the news.

Naomi Okezie, Marketing Assistant, OnyxPDA, via LinkedIn

“I think the main thing TikTok has learnt from tools like analytics is simplicity. Analytics can be so hard to navigate if you’re a beginner, whereas it seems with TikTok’s search insights, finding key information is easier than ever! Definitely a step in the right direction.”

Search by terms or topic

Creator Search Insights lets creators view popular search terms related to what they create, as well look more broadly across TikTok to find general trending content. Results can be filtered by topic, such as ‘science’ or ‘sports’, which will help creators deep-dive their niche area more easily.

As things stand, there’s no way to access these insights via Creator Tools, although TikTok says that is coming soon.

TikTok

“Creators can start tapping into these insights by typing “Creator Search Insights” in the search bar. Creator Search Insights will surface topics that are searched for often. Topics can be sorted by category (like tourism, sports, and science) or For You (topics related to the type of content you create). Creators can also filter for content gap topics. These topics are searched for often, but aren’t featured in a large number of videos on TikTok.”

Financial incentive

Interestingly, TikTok also revealed there will be a financial benefit for those who create content based on what its users are looking for. The platform will now build ‘search value’ into its Creator Rewards Program scheme, which will let creators earn more money by uploading videos that match search trends.

TikTok

“Creators can see which topics are most popular based on a popularity score or the Recommended Topic label next to the search term. These topics have a high potential for engagement and creators can reference these labels as they shape their content strategies and chart their creative direction.”

Content Gaps insights could fuel your marketing

The ability to search for ‘gap topics’ could be very handy for marketers, as it could let them get a head start on other people in their field by creating content that people want to see, but which has very little competition from other accounts. YouTube offers a similar tool.

YouTube users can find these tools within the Research tab in YouTube Analytics. From there, marketers can view how popular a search term is with their audience, the popular searches made by viewers across YouTube for the search topic and popular videos watched by YouTube viewers on the topic.

From here, there are a number of metrics that can be seen:

• Top Searches: The top searches based on your audiences and your saved over the last 28 days. Some terms will even be labeled with ‘content gap’.
• Recent videos related to: The videos related to topics that your audience have watched over the last 28 days.
• Content gap for Shorts. Content gaps where viewers may be looking for more relevant or higher-quality Shorts.

YouTube Help

“A content gap happens when viewers can’t find enough quality search results on YouTube for a specific search. You can use content gaps as inspiration to create content that doesn’t exist or could be improved. 

 

“A content gap can happen when:

• Viewers can’t find any results for their searches.

• Viewers can’t find an exact match for their searches.

• Viewers can’t find relevant videos for their searches – for example, the content is old or low quality.”